The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1887-05-12
whom was largely entrusted to an or
ganization OF volunteer nurses. OF which
Miss Pickens was q member.
LoyEIN A HOSPITAL.

1864 Lieutenant Andre de Rochelle.
Of the first South Carolina Regiment
OF Artillery. a command ofwhich Beau
regard said that it had not its superior
in any army in the world. It had held
Fort Sumter during the terrific fire that
crumbled the great stone walls into
fragments and piece of bursting shell
had struck de Rochelle down with what
was seemingly mortal wound. He
was removed to hospital under the
direction of Surgeon Jeffery, Of the Con-
federate service. and for the many
days in which he lay there nearer death
than conscious life Miss Pickens was
his devoted attendant. There had been
no previous acquaintanceship between
the beautiful nurse and her gallant
patient and she had merely gone to his
bedside in the first instance as she
might have gone to that of any other
suffering soldier; but he owed his life to
her unfiagging care, and when he had
passed the point Of danger gratitude
was mingled with warmer sentiment.
The by-play Of love ran on unchecked
in the fierce theatre Of war, and they
became pledged to marry. They were
Of equal social rank. Lieutenant de Ro-
chelle having lineage that reached the
Huguenot settlement of the state.
The marriage was appointed for the
Christmas eve Of 1864. in the gloom
that then overshadowed the bcleaguered
town. It was sombre holiday season
for the people driven from their shatter-
ed homes by the steady rain of shot and
shell. nearly exhausted of the common
est necessaries of life and shroudei in
mourning for lost members of every
household.
The Pickens family mansion was
within the line OF fire from the Federal
batteries, and months previously had
been abandoned. Miss Pickens had
been received into the residence of her
relative, General Rhett, Which was sup
posed to be beyond the range of their
guns. and had 50 far escaped being
hit by any of the monstrous projectiles
that flew into the city. On Christmas
eve the wedding party were assembled
in the parlor Of the Rhett mansion, one
Of the large and handsome houses 50
common on all the river frontage of
old Charleston. Divested OF its costly
and elaborate decorations that had gone
to swell this or that Confederate fund,
the great room looked barren, chilly and
forbidding. Candles were almost an
unattainable luxury then-the city gas
works had long been wrecked by ex-
ploding shells-and some homemade
device of illumination only lit up the
little space occupied by the lover and
bride and clergyman.
Save for the brilliant uniform of the
soldier and the white robes of the priest
of the Episcopal Church, there seemed
no color or warmth in the apartment.
Finery appropriate to the wedding cere-
monies Of distinguished people was not
to be found in the Confederacy, and
while the dozen of guests were men and
women who had known the opulent and
luxurious life Of good society in the
in the ante-bellum day Of Charleston
they were now reduced to homespuns
and coarse cottons. With the harsh
discordance of the bombardment filling
their ears, and with the knowledge
that the bridegroom must at once quit
his wifc's side for service with his COM
mand, sense of apprehension and
sorrow broOded over the assemblage.
The most serene and self-possessed Of
all present, the newspaper reports
said, was Miss Pickens, whose stately
beauty was heightened by contrast with
the surroundings.
WHEN THE SHELL BURST.
The clergyman voice broke the si-
lence of the group with the reading of
the marriage form. and he had just
reached the interrogatories when the
horrible roar OF a shell vastly louder
than those flying over the distant Sec
tons of the city drowned every other
sound. 1t came from an advanced
battery that General Foster had re-
Gently opened well up on the inner side
of Morris Island and within four
mile range of the Rhett residence. The
200 pounds Of iron loaded with incen-
diary material described trajectory
that ended npon the roof Of the house,
from whence it crushed through the
intermediate floors and burst in the
midst of the wedding party.
When the sitting smoke had cleared
away and men could breathe free from
the suffocating fumes of the powder,
the apartments-its walls and ceiling
partly blown out. its furniture knocked
into chips. blood spattered everywhere,
fragments of human forms strewing the
doors-was q scene OF indescribable
terror. Three Of the wedding guests
mad been instantly killed, and not a
person in the room had escaped injury
Of some sort. Lieutenant de Rochelle
and the clergyman were only slightly
hurt, but Miss Pickens was PROSTATE
and saturated with the blood that
streamed from where her shoulder had
been cruelty torn by fragment Of the
shell. A surgeon pronounced her dead,
but when she was laid upon couch she
slightls revived and endeavored to speak
each heave of her breast causing the
blood to flow in an increasing current
DE Rochelle approached her side and
placed his ear close to the lips
that were painfully struggling to utter
ineligible words. Her eyes sought
the clergyman with look that begged
him to draw nigh. He did 80, and de.
Rochelle, catching as by inspiration
her meaning, asked her if she would
have of the remainder OF the
ceremony performed before she died.
Again she made the effort to speak and
failed, and the surgeon warned them
that her life was ebbing fast; but the
consent which she could not voice found
expression in an infection of the head
Then the clergyman, with his robe
stained from the wound he had received
stood over the couch Of the dying WON
an. whose hand had sought that of hel
lover. and proceeded with the reading
Of the holy ritual in the apartment from